After a bizarre district game that featured 14 unanswered points scored approximately a minute apart, a 17-point deficit nearly erased in the final 10 minutes and a failed two-point conversion on a fake field goal, Odessa Permian coach Gary Gaines glanced stoicly into the West Texas night before giving his first impression of what had just transpired in front of him.

“There’s no quit in Midland Lee,” Gaines said, “that’s obvious.”

Permian, Abilene Cooper and Abilene High can certainly attest to that statement.

Yet the problem for Lee is that, despite its gutty performances on the field this district season, it has no district wins to show for it heading into Friday’s Tall City Classic against Midland High.

Now Lee (5-3, 0-3 in District 3-5A) is faced with a must-win game if it hopes to reach the postseason — gutsy performances in close losses won’t help.

But that’s fine with the Rebels.

“We’re going to continue to fight and we’re going to continue to go back and work and continue to get better.” coach James Morton said after his team’s 17-16 loss to Permian.

“We’re still making strides, we’ve just got to win.”

Effort hasn’t been the issue for Lee in its disappointing start to district play — it’s been consistency.

The Rebels have started slowly on offense in two of the three district games, and both times it ended up haunting them as fourth-quarter opportunities to pull within a field goal of Cooper and pull ahead of Permian ultimately fell short due to a pick-six and a failed two-point conversion.

Morton accepted full responsibility for the sluggish starts and said he will continue to plug away trying to eliminate them.

“I really thought that I’d kind of found our edge on what we need to do to get things started,” Morton said. “Offensively, we were just real inept early.

“We’ve just got to make plays, and we didn’t make the plays that we needed to make in the critical times offensively.”

Consistency has been an issue defensively as well as the Rebels have given up 59 first-half points in district play compared to 24 in the second half — 21 of which came in one game.

That game was against Abilene High, when Lee’s most complete offensive game — the Rebels completed a season-high 15 passes and scored the most points (34) they’ve scored in district — coincided with its worst defensive game.

If Lee can put it all together, the Rebels believe they have a great shot at winning out and qualifying for the postseason.

But even if Lee continues to face adversity, Morton said his team must respond like it did early against Abilene High — not wait until the fourth quarter like it did against Permian.

“The 97-yard drive,” Morton said referring to Permian’s first scoring drive, “is obviously a big drive that hurt us, but if we come back, and we ante up ... “ he said searching for the words, “ ... we’ve just got to overcome that.”

Lee has proven it won’t give up in a game, as Gaines attested to after the Permian game.

Now it must prove it won’t give up in the 3-5A district race. And let the Rebels tell it, that’s not an option.

“To us it’s about the playoffs,” Morton said. “That’s what it comes down to and that’s what we work for.